Consumers today use many types of payment cards and other payment mechanisms to make purchases, for example, using a credit card or automated teller machine (ATM) card to buy a coffee at a coffee shop. In a typical transaction, a consumer takes a payment card out of her wallet or purse and the payment card is slid through a card reader by the consumer or a sales clerk. In the case of a purchase using a credit card, the consumer may have to provide a signature. The consumer typically provides a signature that is captured electronically, such as by signing on a touch sensitive pad or screen provided by the seller, the touch sensitive pad or screen capturing the signature electronically. In the case of a purchase using an ATM card, the consumer may need to provide her personal identification number (PIN) for her card. The consumer typically enters her PIN using a keypad provided by the seller.
Some consumers are concerned with certain aspects of such purchase transactions. For example, a consumer may be concerned with touching items previously touched by other people, due to their concern or, in some cases, even fear of catching germs left on the items by other people. When providing her signature for a credit card transaction, a consumer may be concerned with germs left on the stylus or touch-sensitive pad or screen by a previous consumer when the previous consumer provides his signature.
When providing her PIN number, a consumer may be concerned with catching germs left on the keypad or touch screen when a previous consumer uses the keypad or touch screen to provide his PIN.
Consumers may also be concerned with others obtaining information the consumer prefers to keep private during the transaction. For example, a consumer may be concerned about using the seller's keypad to enter the consumer's PIN, as the consumer may feel that she cannot adequately hide from others the PIN that she enters using that keypad.
The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments of the present invention. Similarly, some components and/or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments of the present invention. Moreover, while the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the invention to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.